A large and growing population of people enjoys entertainment through consumption of digital content items, such as music, movies, images, books and other types of digital content. Many people today consume digital content through a wide variety of electronic devices. Among these electronic devices are electronic book readers, cellular telephones, personal digital assistants (PDAs), portable media players, tablets, netbooks, and the like.
As more content is made available in digital form, the economic landscape for content creation, production, and distribution is evolving. This is particularly the case for music, movies, and electronic books (or “eBooks”). Such content items may be distributed online to electronic devices, without production of a portable physical medium, such as a tape cassette, CD, DVD, or physical paper-based book. As a result, many of the transaction costs associated with traditional channels of distribution on physical media are being reduced or eliminated entirely. This leads to the possibility of new economic and social models involving selling, lending, and borrowing of digital items.